85 The Royal Canadian Legion www.mbnwo.legion.ca CONNELL, Kenneth Dean “Ken” WWII Ken was born on August 24, 1919, to William John and Ella (Howatt) Connell in Langford Municipality near Neepawa, Manitoba. When he was nineteen years old, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in September 1940 inWinnipeg. At that time, he was farming with his father in Langruth, Manitoba. His first posting was to Manning Depot in Valcartier, Quebec as ground crew. Later, he was sent to Uplands, near Ottawa, as clerk general at the SFTS Air Force base where Harvards were being used as a training aircraft. After a year and a half to two years, he remustered to air crew and was posted to I.T.S. (Initial Training School) in Fingal, Ontario. Upon graduating from ITS as Leading Aircraftsman (LAC), he was posted to the Elementary Flying Training School (E.F.T.S.) at St. Jean, Quebec on June 4, 1942. He trained on Ansons as Navigator, Bombardier or Observer receiving his commission as Pilot Officer (P.O.). That Christmas, he was posted overseas and went over on the Louis Pasteur solo voyage, no convoy or escort. They docked in Greenock, Scotland and travelled to Bournemouth on the south coast of England by train. Billets were provided in one of the tourist hotels at this popular peacetime summer resort. On February 2, 1943, he was posted to 383 O.T.U. (Operational Training Unit) in Peplow Hodnet which was an R.A.F. station. There, he trained on Wellington two engine bombers (Wimpys). At this point, they got put in crews. There was an Australian, a Scotsman, a Welshman, and three Englishmen in his crew. He was the only Canadian. Their crew went on a “nickel raid” over Paris – dropped propaganda leaflets. They got flack in their hydraulics from enemy ack-ack ground fire. When they got back to England, their aircraft was in bad shape for landing. Air control ordered their crew to bail out and crash land the aircraft. He bailed out but just as he did so, orders were changed and he was the only one to bail out. Their altitude was about 3,000 feet. There was a bit of a moon and he could see a lake. In training, if they had to abandon aircraft, they were told to jump out and count to ten before pulling the rip cord. That was the fastest Kenneth ever counted to ten in his whole life. He landed by a farmhouse, lost his boots about three to four hundred yards from this house.The occupants were asleep so he banged on the door and got them up.The couple took him in and gave him some hot tea. His base was contacted and a truck (lorry) came and picked him up. His next posting was to a conversion unit at Foldingworth in Lincolnshire. He was there until November 1943. They trained on Lancaster bombers – Lancs – four engined planes. He was next attached to #101 squadron on Lancs, an R.A.F. station at Ludford-Magna. His crew had a German speaking Australian – a W.A.G. – who jammed the airway so the German ground defence force couldn’t contact the Luftwaffe fighters when they were making a raid. He remembered his first bombing raid. It happened on January 7, 1944. Their target was Stuttgart. That was a pretty hairy experience first trip for their entire crew of eight. They accomplished their mission and returned safely to base – the flack missed them. The raid in Nuremberg was a bad night. Eighteen aircraft from #101 squadron took part. Eight were shot down. That night, their squadron #101 lost more planes than any other squadron that took part. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, their squadron was on invasion patrol. They flew from the English coast to just the outskirts of Paris. The objective was to jam the German wave lengths. For this, their squadron was highly commended. They “did a whale of a job”. They were now back to eighteen planes again. One of their aircraft was shot down that night into the English Channel, at daybreak, all the crew escaped. continued . . .
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